According to SI.com's Grant Wahl, Major League Soccer is set to give teams $400,000 of targeted allocation money each in addition to the $800,000 that had previously been announced last year. Since the cash-infusion comes in the form of TAM it will need to be used by teams to bring in or retain players whose salaries are over the designated player threshold.

With the 2017 season coming up quickly, the MLS blogs here at SB Nation got together to give our newest compatriots, Dirty South Soccer and E Pluribus Loonum, the traditional welcome gift: a mock expansion draft.

The real deal is coming up next Tuesday for Atlanta United and Minnesota United, but in the mean time each SB Nation blog contributed a list of protected players and early this week the new blogs on the block made their picks.

The Portland Timbers have been among the most tight-lipped franchises in Major League Soccer this offseason, holding off as long as possible before announcing their end of year cuts and re-signings. Not every team is as patient, however, and as a result we have our first confirmed departure of the season.

There is an expansion draft coming up and with less than a week until the end of the 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs, we will know soon who the Portland Timbers — and the rest of Major League Soccer — are protecting. However, with eleven players to be protected it is still far from clear who the Timbers will take off the table, so let's take a look at the roster and see just who might be on Gavin Wilkinson's list to be spared from the reach of Minnesota United and Atlanta United.

The Portland Timbers announced their key preseason date this morning, giving us our first glimpse at the 2017 season. Dates for the Desert Friendlies and the returning Simple Invitational were both announced today.

The Timbers will start their preseason in Tucson, AZ on January 25th, taking part in the Desert Friendlies until February 5th, when they will return to Portland.

Look, Eastern Conference teams, it would be great if you could just get through this with no injuries, no suspensions, and a heart full of confidence that you could beat the Seattle Sounders in the MLS Cup Final.

Yeah, that's right people who maybe were not paying attention on Sunday: the Sounders are in the final after beating the Colorado Rapids 3-1 on aggregate in the Western Conference Final.

The Portland Timbers will have a new home kit for the 2017 season, replacing the "Chevron" kits in which the side won the 2015 MLS Cup, and now we have our first look at them thanks to Merritt Paulson's first tweet since stepping away from Twitter late this year.

There have been some blowouts in this year's MLS Cup playoffs, but coming into the final set of matches before the Final both conference finals are tight as can be. Both high seeds come into today's matches down a goal, but with away goals in hand a breakthrough will put them in good position to advance.

The first wisps of smoke floated up on Tuesday afternoon with reports that Darlington Nagbe was spending the day at Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland to meet with Celtic FC and take in the Hoops' Champions League matchup with Barcelona.

Those wisps turned to a plume by Tuesday evening when the Daily Mail and the Scottish Sun reported Celtic were, in fact, in pursuit of Nagbe's services.

The offseason has been going on forever here in Portland, but elsewhere Major League Soccer continues on and the conference finals kick off tonight.

The Eastern Conference is all Canadian as Toronto FC face off against the Montreal Impact in one of MLS's better rivalries, while back in the Western Conference fans are given the dire choice of the Colorado Rapids' brutal pragmatism versus the quite possibly literal deal with he devil that the Seattle Sounders made to turn around their season.

We have all been wondering what the future holds for Jack Jewsbury following his retirement this season and now the Portland Timbers have announced that Captain Jack will be staying on with the team as the organization's Director of Business Development.

While Jewsbury will not have a direct impact on the Timbers' on-field product in this role, he will still be a part of the club's relationship with the community, acting as an official ambassador for the club's Stand Together community platform, which is involved in a number of different community driven initiatives, as well as helping to develop new sponsorship opportunities in his primary role.

The Portland Timbers have announced Ned Grabavoy as the side's new Director of Scouting and Recruitment today, adding the former midfielder to the organization's front office following his retirement as a player.

Grabavoy, who played 301 regular season matches in his MLS career — including 22 with the Timbers in 2016 — will oversee a team of scouts, according to the release, and will be charged with "identifying and evaluating" professional and collegiate players for the side.

For the Portland Timbers, success has come in different forms in different years. The Timbers have had their share of regular season successes, post-season glory, and rivalry match triumphs, but so far the side has never repeated the successes of the MLS era.

Portland Thorns head coach Mark Parsons joins Jamie and Chris for a wide-ranging offseason interview that touches on his team's ability to avoid complacency in 2017, Parsons' view of seemingly premature NWSL retirements, and his vision for the Thorns' central midfield. Chris and Jamie then read the tea leaves of the Portland Timbers' offseason plans and tackle some Timbers questions.